Kausler, Donald H.

Trapp, E. Philip

English

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Journal of the Arkansas Academy of ScienceVolume 11 Article 111958The Relationship Between a Time Score andAnxiety Score on the Taylor Anxiety ScaleDonald H. KauslerUniversity of Arkansas, FayettevilleE. Philip TrappUniversity of Arkansas, FayettevilleFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaasPart of the Cognitive Psychology Commons, and the Higher Education CommonsThis article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able toread, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking priorpermission from the publisher or the author.This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academyof Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu, ccmiddle@uark.edu.Recommended CitationKausler, Donald H. and Trapp, E. Philip (1958) "The Relationship Between a Time Score and Anxiety Score on the Taylor AnxietyScale," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 11 , Article 11.Available at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol11/iss1/11*65THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEKN A TIME SCORE ANDANXIETY SCORE ON THE TAYLOR ANXIETY SCALEDonald H. Kausler and E. Philip TrappUniversity of ArkansasSince Taylor(6) derived her anxiety question-naire as a quantitative method for measuring rela-tive drive level among human subjects, a number ofstudies (e.g., 4, 5» 7) nave appeared employing herquestionnaire as a criterion measure of drive level.These studies have characteristically used the ques-tionnaire in the testing of some hypothesis rela-tive to drive and learning.In addition, there havebeenmany reported stu-dies on the questionnaire per se (e.g., 2, 3> o).They have focused chiefly on the problem of relia-bility,validity (as measured by correlation ¦withother indices of anxiety), and the relationship ofanxiety level to other independent attributes (such.as intelligence). As part of a broader study in-volving the questionnaire, the writers took theopportunity to investigate a performance factorother than item selection or test score, The var-iable examined was the time required to completethe questionnaire. The study was concerned withinvestigating the relationship of this variable tothe quantitative score on the anxiety que stionna ire.Thus, this research should be viewed as a pilotstudy, mainly to tap the fea sibilityof us ing a morerefined time measure in future experimental work.METHODEighty-six students, approximately the same num-ber of each sex, in two sections of an undergradu-ate course in abnormal psychology at the Univers-ity of Arkansas were given the short form of theTaylor Biographical Inventory. The subjects weretold that the purpose of the questionnaire was tocollect and compare biographical information amongtypical college students in different sections ofthe country, and that they were part of the sampledrawn from the •outh-central sector. The specificinstructions for the questionnaire followed veryclosely those outlined by Taylor and were as follows:65Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 11 [1958], Art. 11Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1958ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE66The statements in this test booklet representexperiences, ways of doing things, or beliefs orpreferences that are true of some people but arenot true of others. You are to read each statementand decide whether or not it is true with respectto yourself. If it is true or mostly true, marka plus sign on the answer sheet. If the statementis not usually true or not true at all, mark a zerosign on the answer sheet. Answer the statement ascarefully and honestly as you can. T nere are nocorrect or wrong answers; we are interested in the¦way you work and in the things you believe. Arethere any questions?As the answer sheets were returned to the ad-ministrator (the subjects were told to return theanswer sheets as soon as they were finished), theywere given a rank based on the order of completion.That is, the first answer sheet returned was givenrank one, the second, rank two, etc. Time of com-pletion ranged from approximately five to thirtyminutes.There are 90 items on the questionnaire of which50 are keyed as anxiety responses. An individual'sscore is the total number of keyed items answeredby the individual inthe direction indicated by thekey. The underlying hypothesis of the question-naire is that high scores are indicative of highanxiety drive; low scores are indicative of lowanxiety drive.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe subjects were divided into four quartilesbased upon the order of return answer sheets. Thefirst quartile (&-|_) consisted of the first 22 sub-jects to complete the questionnaire; the secondquartile (Q.2) consisted of the next 21 subjects;the third quartile (GU ) of the next 21 subjects;the fourth quartile (Q4) consisted of the last 22subjects to complete the questionnaire.For each quartile the mean and standard devia-tion of the total anxiety scores were determined.These means and standard deviations are as fol-lows: For Q-i the mean isl6.18 and standard devi-ation is For 0-2 the corresponding values are13.62 and 6.34. For C^ they are 14.86 and 7.44.For Q.4 they are l6.95 and 6.12.66Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 11 [1958], Art. 11http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol11/iss1/11"TAYLOR ANXIETY SCALE67Following the procedure given by Edwards(l), asimple analysis of variance was performed to testthe significance of differences between means forthe four quartiles. This analysis yielded an F of,99 which is not significantly beyond chance expec-tancy.The nature of the quartile means, however, sug-gested that the first and fourth quartiles combinedrepre sent a different population of anxious subjectsthan do the second and third quartiles combined.Consequently, the anxiety scores for the first andfourth quartiles ( Nss44 ) were pooled together, aswere the anxiety scores for the second and thirdquartiles (Na:42). For the first and fourth quar-tiles the mean is lo.57 and standard deviation is7.9O. For the second and third quartiles the meanis 14.24 and the standard deviation is 6.94. A Jbtest was made of the difference be tween means ,where_t a Mean 1-Mean 2/Standard Error of Difference."The obtained Jb of 1.52 (p < .13 ) does not permit usto reject the nullhypothesis (no real differencesbetween means) at the .05 level of confidence, butdoes suggest a trend worthy of further investiga-tion with a more refined methodology.this exploratory study the hypothesis isoffered that high anxiety drive subjects form twoextreme groups in their performance on the Tayloranxiety questionnaire. They tend to complete thequestionnaire very rapidly; that is, test time isshort, or they tend to require considerable timeto complete the questionnaire; that is, test timeis long. Low anxiety drive sub jects are more likelyto take intermediate durations of time to completethe questionnaire. This hypothesis follows alsofrom the nature of anxiety itself and its differ-ential effects upon human behavior. It may be ex-pected that high anxiety drive subjects, possiblythe controlled type, might speed through the ques-tionnaire ae an escape technique to an anxiety pro-voking situation. Other high anxiety drive sub-jects, pos sibly the free-floating type, may exper-ience more directly their anxiety and have diffi-culty completing an anxiety provoking task.To adequately test this hypothesis a more rig-orous procedure for measuring time score should beused. An individual administration of the ques-tionnaire would be desirable. This would permit67Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 11 [1958], Art. 11Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1958ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE68a precise measure of the time taken by a subjectto complete the questionnaire.LITERATURE CITED(1) Edwards ,A. L., 195O» Experiments,! design inpsychological research. New York: Rin~hart.(2) Hoyt, D. P. and T. M.- Magoon. 1954. A.vali-dation study of the Taylor Manifest AnxietyScale. J. Clin. Psychol. 10 :357-36l.(3) Kendall, E., 1954. The validity of Taylor'sManifest Anxiety Scale. _J. Consult Psyohol ,18:429-432.(4) Spence, K. W. and I.E. Farber. 1953. Con-ditioning and extinction as a function ofanxiety. J. Exp. Psychol. 45 :ll6-ll9.(5) Spence, K. C, I.E. Farber andH.H. McFann.195o. The relation of anxiety (drive) levelto performance incompetit ional and non-com-Ipetitional paired associates learning. J.Exp. Psychol. 52:296-305.[b) Taylor, Janet. 1953- A personality scale ofmanifest anxiety. J_, Abnorm. Soc . Psychol48:285-290.(7) Taylor, Janet and K. W. Spence. 1952. Therelationship of anxiety level to performancein serial learning. _J_. Exp. Psychol. 44:6l-64.68Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 11 [1958], Art. 11http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol11/iss1/11

The Relationship Between a Time Score and Anxiety Score on the Taylor Anxiety Scale

UARK (University of Arkansas )

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science Volume 11 Article 11 1958 The Relationship Between a Time Score and Anxiety Score on the Taylor Anxiety Scale Donald H. Kausler University of Arkansas, Fayetteville E. Philip Trapp University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas  Part of the Cognitive Psychology Commons, and the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Kausler, Donald H. and Trapp, E. Philip (1958) "The Relationship Between a Time Score and Anxiety Score on the Taylor Anxiety Scale," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 11 , Article 11. Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol11/iss1/11 This article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able to read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu. *65THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEKN A TIME SCORE ANDANXIETY SCORE ON THE TAYLOR ANXIETY SCALEDonald H. Kausler and E. Philip TrappUniversity of ArkansasSince Taylor(6) derived her anxiety question-naire as a quantitative method for measuring rela-tive drive level among human subjects, a number ofstudies (e.g., 4, 5» 7) nave appeared employing herquestionnaire as a criterion measure of drive level.These studies have characteristically used the ques-tionnaire in the testing of some hypothesis rela-tive to drive and learning.In addition, there havebeenmany reported stu-dies on the questionnaire per se (e.g., 2, 3> o).They have focused chiefly on the problem of relia-bility,validity (as measured by correlation ¦withother indices of anxiety), and the relationship ofanxiety level to other independent attributes (such.as intelligence). As part of a broader study in-volving the questionnaire, the writers took theopportunity to investigate a performance factorother than item selection or test score, The var-iable examined was the time required to completethe questionnaire. The study was concerned withinvestigating the relationship of this variable tothe quantitative score on the anxiety que stionna ire.Thus, this research should be viewed as a pilotstudy, mainly to tap the fea sibilityof us ing a morerefined time measure in future experimental work.METHODEighty-six students, approximately the same num-ber of each sex, in two sections of an undergradu-ate course in abnormal psychology at the Univers-ity of Arkansas were given the short form of theTaylor Biographical Inventory. The subjects weretold that the purpose of the questionnaire was tocollect and compare biographical information amongtypical college students in different sections ofthe country, and that they were part of the sampledrawn from the •outh-central sector. The specificinstructions for the questionnaire followed veryclosely those outlined by Taylor and were as follows:65Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 11 [1958], Art. 11Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1958ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE66The statements in this test booklet representexperiences, ways of doing things, or beliefs orpreferences that are true of some people but arenot true of others. You are to read each statementand decide whether or not it is true with respectto yourself. If it is true or mostly true, marka plus sign on the answer sheet. If the statementis not usually true or not true at all, mark a zerosign on the answer sheet. Answer the statement ascarefully and honestly as you can. T nere are nocorrect or wrong answers; we are interested in the¦way you work and in the things you believe. Arethere any questions?As the answer sheets were returned to the ad-ministrator (the subjects were told to return theanswer sheets as soon as they were finished), theywere given a rank based on the order of completion.That is, the first answer sheet returned was givenrank one, the second, rank two, etc. Time of com-pletion ranged from approximately five to thirtyminutes.There are 90 items on the questionnaire of which50 are keyed as anxiety responses. An individual'sscore is the total number of keyed items answeredby the individual inthe direction indicated by thekey. The underlying hypothesis of the question-naire is that high scores are indicative of highanxiety drive; low scores are indicative of lowanxiety drive.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe subjects were divided into four quartilesbased upon the order of return answer sheets. Thefirst quartile (&-|_) consisted of the first 22 sub-jects to complete the questionnaire; the secondquartile (Q.2) consisted of the next 21 subjects;the third quartile (GU ) of the next 21 subjects;the fourth quartile (Q4) consisted of the last 22subjects to complete the questionnaire.For each quartile the mean and standard devia-tion of the total anxiety scores were determined.These means and standard deviations are as fol-lows: For Q-i the mean isl6.18 and standard devi-ation is For 0-2 the corresponding values are13.62 and 6.34. For C^ they are 14.86 and 7.44.For Q.4 they are l6.95 and 6.12.66Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 11 [1958], Art. 11https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol11/iss1/11"TAYLOR ANXIETY SCALE67Following the procedure given by Edwards(l), asimple analysis of variance was performed to testthe significance of differences between means forthe four quartiles. This analysis yielded an F of,99 which is not significantly beyond chance expec-tancy.The nature of the quartile means, however, sug-gested that the first and fourth quartiles combinedrepre sent a different population of anxious subjectsthan do the second and third quartiles combined.Consequently, the anxiety scores for the first andfourth quartiles ( Nss44 ) were pooled together, aswere the anxiety scores for the second and thirdquartiles (Na:42). For the first and fourth quar-tiles the mean is lo.57 and standard deviation is7.9O. For the second and third quartiles the meanis 14.24 and the standard deviation is 6.94. A Jbtest was made of the difference be tween means ,where_t a Mean 1-Mean 2/Standard Error of Difference."The obtained Jb of 1.52 (p < .13 ) does not permit usto reject the nullhypothesis (no real differencesbetween means) at the .05 level of confidence, butdoes suggest a trend worthy of further investiga-tion with a more refined methodology.this exploratory study the hypothesis isoffered that high anxiety drive subjects form twoextreme groups in their performance on the Tayloranxiety questionnaire. They tend to complete thequestionnaire very rapidly; that is, test time isshort, or they tend to require considerable timeto complete the questionnaire; that is, test timeis long. Low anxiety drive sub jects are more likelyto take intermediate durations of time to completethe questionnaire. This hypothesis follows alsofrom the nature of anxiety itself and its differ-ential effects upon human behavior. It may be ex-pected that high anxiety drive subjects, possiblythe controlled type, might speed through the ques-tionnaire ae an escape technique to an anxiety pro-voking situation. Other high anxiety drive sub-jects, pos sibly the free-floating type, may exper-ience more directly their anxiety and have diffi-culty completing an anxiety provoking task.To adequately test this hypothesis a more rig-orous procedure for measuring time score should beused. An individual administration of the ques-tionnaire would be desirable. This would permit67Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 11 [1958], Art. 11Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1958ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE68a precise measure of the time taken by a subjectto complete the questionnaire.LITERATURE CITED(1) Edwards ,A. L., 195O» Experiments,! design inpsychological research. New York: Rin~hart.(2) Hoyt, D. P. and T. M.- Magoon. 1954. A.vali-dation study of the Taylor Manifest AnxietyScale. J. Clin. Psychol. 10 :357-36l.(3) Kendall, E., 1954. The validity of Taylor'sManifest Anxiety Scale. _J. Consult Psyohol ,18:429-432.(4) Spence, K. W. and I.E. Farber. 1953. Con-ditioning and extinction as a function ofanxiety. J. Exp. Psychol. 45 :ll6-ll9.(5) Spence, K. C, I.E. Farber andH.H. McFann.195o. The relation of anxiety (drive) levelto performance incompetit ional and non-com-Ipetitional paired associates learning. J.Exp. Psychol. 52:296-305.[b) Taylor, Janet. 1953- A personality scale ofmanifest anxiety. J_, Abnorm. Soc . Psychol48:285-290.(7) Taylor, Janet and K. W. Spence. 1952. Therelationship of anxiety level to performancein serial learning. _J_. Exp. Psychol. 44:6l-64.68Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 11 [1958], Art. 11https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol11/iss1/11

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The Relationship Between a Time Score and Anxiety Score on the Taylor Anxiety Scale

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